Colleges are Failing Students in Financial Preparedness

Most grads feel like they're "going it alone" with their finances

More grads are realizing the most important thing college didn’t teach them: how to deal with money.

It’s no surprise college students are unhappy with how much their alma mater prepared them for dealing with credit and debt. But a new national study conducted by Experian tries to quantify it, and one in five grads give their college an F.

Fifty-five percent of students said they feel like they are “going it alone” in dealing with money. Research also reveals that:

Many are stressed about loan repayments (37 percent)

less than half know their credit score (47 percent)

Over half feel like “the odds are stacked against them” (53 percent)

And the prospects of effectively paying off these loans after college don’t seem very promising. Grads said that:

They believe they’ll be paying back their loans for a long time (59 percent)

They feel concerned about paying back their current debt (72 percent)

They don’t have a post-graduation job lined up (84 percent)

Meanwhile, most students (54 percent) believe they will probably defer their loans. Even with these discouraging numbers, respondents remain optimistic. Many (53 percent) believe being “debt free” is in reach.